Your Strong Willed Children

Day 76: 1 Chronicles 16–20; Hosea 9–11; Hebrews 8–10

The chroniclers record their version of King David bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem and making plans for a temple made of cedar.  It is very similar to the 2 Samuel version.

Comparing 1 Chronicles 21 with 2 Samuel 24 there are some vivid details that set the chroniclers account apart.  The chapter each deal with David's census which was considered to be a sinful expression of arrogance (look at me and all the people I have at my command) or fear (I need to be sure I have enough fighting men to prepare for any foreign attack).  The reason it is seen as sinful is unclear.  What is clear is that in 2 Samuel, the Lord's anger with Israel (again for unknown reasons) is what leads God to stir us David to do this sinful census.  But in 1 Chronicles 21 it is Satan who stands against David and incited David to count the people.

It should be noted that by the time of this writing, the word "satan" simply means "adversary."  The early Hebrews did not think of evil as personified in an anti-god named Satan or Lucifer or Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies.  Instead they understood the adversary to be a part of God's heavenly host, a servant of God uses by the Lord for testing and sifting the good from the evil in people (Job 1:6-12; Lk. 22:31) .  So the text could be rendered, "an adversary stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people. The adversary is unknown, but God's displeasure is clear, although we have to struggle to know why.

One of the best interpretations of God's anger is that a census usually involved taxation and forced labor or military service.  You remember the Christmas story.  "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed (Luke 2:1 - KJV)."  Some ancient records describe men running for the hills to hide from those taking the census.  This explains Joab's response to King David's order for the census. "Why should he (King David) bring guilt on Israel (1 Chr. 21:3b, 6)?"

Some suggest that David's census was an attempt to fill the temple coffers to appease God's anger.  David may be very aware of the reason for God's wrath, but this tax on he people is an abuse of power.  Still, as a leader of a nation, David's choices affect everyone.  God's wrath for sin, whether known or unknown, intentional or unintentional, are an affront to the Holy One of Israel.  If God is to dwell among them, they must be holy.  The sacrifice at Ornan's threshing floor (Araunah in 2 Sm. 24:16-24) is a prefiguring of what will take place in this same site, the temple.  Priests will offer sacrifices for the peoples unintentional, unknown sin, to make the people holy again.  These atoning sacrifices will be offered yearly covering over the sins of the people and making them holy again (Heb 9:7).

The details about the angel slaying 70,000 of the people by way of plague reminds us of the angel of death slaying the first born of Egypt on that first Passover. Yet here the angel is seen by David and by Ornan the Jebusite and his frightened sons.  It makes the transaction to purchase the threshing floor much more exciting. To visualize a massive angel with drawn sword hovering over Jerusalem "between earth and heaven" is a creepy image.  When Ornan offers the threshing floor for free, it feels more like a desperate plea, "Take it (1 Chr. 21:23)!"

David was described as a man after God's own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).  And God relates to the sons of David as his own son (2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chr. 17:13).  This tender image is also communicated in Hosea as God speaks of His relationship with His son little Israel.

God is displeased with His wayward Ephraim (Northern Israel).  He found little Ephraim like finding wild grapes in the desert (Hos. 9:10). But on their threshing floors they practiced pagan worship to the Baals.  And they became arrogant in the wealth God had showered upon them by trusting in their "own way and in their large number of soldiers (Hos. 10:13b)."  God of course confronts them through the prophet with prophecies of disaster.  Judah will harness Jacob (Ephraim) like oxen and plow.  The prophet urges them to sow righteousness and reap faithful love instead of sowing wickedness and reaping injustice (Hos. 10:11-13).

But they did not so destruction is decreed, a break with Yahweh.  But then the tone of tenderness returns in chapter 11. It is the tenderness of a brokenhearted Father over a wayward son.  God loved Israel as a little child when they were only 70 going down to Egypt. And when Israel had grown, He called His son out of Egypt. But the more He called, the more His son ran away.  God taught Israel to walk, fed him, healed his wounds and lead him with cords of love.  But sadly,

"My people are bent on turning from Me (Hos. 11:7a)."


God's heart is torn over the destruction He has decreed, the days of punishment He has unleashed (Hos. 9:7).


"How can I give you up, Ephraim? 
    How can I surrender you, Israel?
    How can I make you like Admah? 
    How can I treat you like Zeboiim? 
    I have had a change of heart;
    My compassion is stirred (Hos. 11:8)!"





So God looks beyond His son's rebellion toward a hopeful future. "They will follow the Lord...I will settle them in their homes (Hos. 11:10a, 11b)."


If God spared Jerusalem because of how He felt about His children watching the horror of the plague from the angel of death, then His compassion reached its fullest in the One who truly met all the holy requirements who was slaughtered like an unblemished  sacrificial lamb for our sakes. The sword is sheathed once for all because the perfected Son of God entered the true holy of holies in heaven and gave Himself as an atoning sacrifice (Heb. 9:11-14).

To treat this once for all sacrifice with contempt through unbelief or falling away from the transformation given through the presence of the Holy Spirit, is like recrucifying Jesus. The writer of Hebrews makes it sound like it's impossible to be restored to God if we once believed, once tasted of the life to come and turn away (Heb 6:4-8).  If we sin deliberately, there is no sacrifice that can atone for such rebellion.  That is a hard pill to swallow.

In comparing what happens to rebels in the law of Moses to the new covenant, the cost is death, how much more the punishment for rejecting the Christ you on followed and trusted for salvation (Heb. 10:26-31)?  This is a harsh word.  It is akin tot he harsh pronouncements of Yahweh through His prophets.  There is a finality to it.  But just as the Lord has a change of heart in Hosea 11:8, the writer of Hebrews looks beyond the current trespasses of a frightened and sluggish church and speaks words of hope (Heb. 6:9-12).

"we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life (Heb. 10:39)."


It is always difficult to know when to interpret words of scripture literally and when the text itself is metaphorical and rhetorical polemic that pushes to extreme to gain attention and deliver an exhortation tot he alarmed crowd.  I read the words of Hebrews like I read those of the prophets. It a message from God using rhetorical tools to shake up the people of God so that the people of God will truly live as they are in fact His.


Lord, for all Your strong willed children, I pray for Your endless patience, compassion and mercy.  May you continue to use Your church and Your messengers to shake them out of their slumber and into Your embrace. Trusting in Christ's all sufficient sacrifice and all powerful grace to salvage our weak lives, Amen.